AMERICAS SECRET WWII WEAPON IN
SWITZERLAND

Raymond Schuhl is the stuff of legends. Hardly anyone knows his name and yet in WWI
as a member of the French Army he went to Switzerland and produced anti-German leaflets.

In WWII, after the fall of France, he did it again. He faked his death, went to
Switzerland where he joined with the American OSS to head their propaganda campaign
against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

WORLD WAR ONE

In October 1914, the Germans were at the gates of Paris. They were drafting
Frenchmen to dig their trenches and build fortifications. About the same time, the French
government organized a Bureau de la presse et de l'information, ("Office of
Press and Information") and Minister of War Millerand formed a Service de la
Propaganda aerienne ("Aerial Propaganda Service" sometimes called
"SPA") attached to the 2nd Bureau of the Army General Headquarters.

The Artist Hansi in 1914

In 1916, the French government established the Maison de la Presse in a
six-story building of some 200 rooms in Rue Francois Premier in Paris. One section of the
Maison de la presse was the SPA. It was composed of Professor Tonnelat and Jean Jacques
Waltz, the Alsatian artist code-named "Hansi."

In 1916, Raymond Schuhl joined the team. Schuhl is of particular interest because he
crossed the border into Switzerland after the German invasion of France in WWII where he
did exactly the same thing that he did in WWI. This time, he secretly designed leaflets
for the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) using the code-name Salembier right
under the eyes of the very suspicious, nervous, and neutral Swiss.

I first wrote about Schuhl years ago in a magazine article about OSS Berne and said:

The OSS mission had early established contact with a Frenchman, known under his
cover name of Salembier, who had been one of the French Deuxieme Bureau's
chief propaganda artists in World War I.

Through Enemy Lines - A three Years Offensive against German Morale

This book was bound in vellum and then the artist Hansi (Jean Jacques Waltz)
painted this wonderful cover illustration of a very early variant of the U.S. B-17 bomber
flying over New York harbor and dropping leaflets. He would later design an Ex Libris
label for Schuhls library that had some similarities to this picture.

This Ex-libris library label was made by the artist Hansi for his wartime
friend and comrade Raymond Schuhl. In the foreground are the ruins of the castles of
Ortenbourg and Romstein dominating Sainte Marie aux Mines, the birthplace of the Raymond
Schuhl. In the distance Hansi depicts Paris and New York.

Hansi drew this self-portrait Silhouette of himself in 1929

A doll made by Hansi wearing traditional Alsatian clothing

Hansi states that Raymond A. Schuhl was born in Sainte Marie-aux-Mines. This pretty
valley of Alsace is dominated by the ruins of the castles of Ortenbourg and Ramstein,
which we see in the foreground of the Ex-libris library label above. Other sources say
that he was born in Benfeld (about 38 kilometers from Sainte Marie-aux-Mines) on 7 April
1884 to Samuel Schuhl and his mother Reine Picard. Hansi continues:

Mr. Schuhl lived in Paris, which can be seen in the background. From 1914 to 1918,
during the last war, Mr. Schuhl carried out many important missions in America so one sees
the sea, and on the other shore New York, the Statue of Liberty, and the plane that
transports him.

Although his religion is listed nowhere in official documents I was informed by another
researcher that he was of the Jewish faith.

The heraldry is as follows: the symbols of Ribeaupierre/Lorraine; Paris; the United
States of America; and finally France.

A 1916 WWI Anti-German Postcard by Hansi

The text is:

LE MEGALOMANE MICROCEPHALE (the Megalomaniac Microcephalic man)

Hansi saw the Germans as Megalomaniacs: Persons who have an obsessive desire for power;
and Microcephalic, with a birth defect of having a small head and shrunken brain.

Waltz talked about his time writing propaganda for the French in WWI in his 1922 book
Through Enemy Lines - A three Years Offensive against German Morale. I am not going to
quote him exactly and will edit his long passages down to brief comments. He said in part:

A small table in the corner of an information desk and, in a cabinet, books and a
few German newspapers, was, towards the end of August 1915, the installation of the French
Aircraft Propaganda Service which was ordered to organize and methodically
disseminate propaganda leaflets beyond enemy lines. Our staff was a single interpreter who
was, on his own, to endeavor to destroy the morale of two or three million German soldiers
who were intoxicated with their early success.

Our Propaganda Service always remained modest. From November 1915,
Professor Tonnelat and I were a team and shared the rather heavy work of drafting,
printing and the dispatch of leaflets. In 1916, the presence of Third interpreter became
necessary; Mr. Raymond Schuhl then joined us. Two secretaries and some handlers gradually
complemented our team. The total number of persons employed never reached ten members.

It was not the first time, since the start of the war that we were in a less
favorable position than the Boche. This had not stopped us from beating them more than
once with their own weapon. Our friend Raymond Schuhl promised to make this happen once
again. We would do better than the Germans, without the help of anyone and against the
odds. The promise was kept Schuhl kept the Germans on the alert for over two
years Every day parcels of clandestine literature crossed over into Mulhouse and St.
Louis in commercial vehicles, in the pockets of workmen with border passes, in the milk
bins which the Swiss sent to Mulhouse every day, in the freight trains, etc. Massages were
sent down the Rhine in hermetically sealed floating tubes. Messages were sent attached to
balloons from friendly houses near the border.

Forged WWII German Military Headquarters Envelopes

I have seen propaganda envelopes used postally in WWII that bear the markings of the
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. I thought I would depict some blank envelopes here so the
reader can see that everything Schuhl did in WWI he did again in WWII

As for the smugglers: from Constanz to Basle, and over the Lake of Constanz, traffic
was regular and lively. The smugglers, whether Swiss or German, thought nothing of adding
a few bales of pamphlets to their merchandise.

A Fake WWII can of Sardines filled with propaganda leaflets
One again Schuhl retraces his steps from WWI

Schuhl decided to become a canned food merchant. He assembled a great number of cans
bearing the Amieux trademark (a well-known French firm) and got a large
consignment to the border The German consulates had a section dealing with mail. In
these same consulates there were fine stocks of official envelopes, these were sometimes
sold. It was easy enough to use these envelopes and to mail them at the same post office
and same window as that used openly and every day by the employees of the German
consulate.

The French Facsimile of the German Newspaper Field Post - Number 6,
December 1915

Waltz mentions this French fake newspaper he produced with Schuhl. He says in part:

From October 1915, we printed a German newspaper regularly, eventually totaling almost
300 pages. The first twelve issues were titled Die Feldpost, but the leaflet
was so carefully demonized and policed by the German military authorities that it was
necessary to change its name. From number 13 onwards it was entitled: Kriegsblatter
fur das deutsche Volk (War Pages for the German People). The newspaper became known
as Das freie deutsche Wort (The Free German Word), until the end of the war.

The actual booklet Jaccuse! and the disguised French copy of the
booklet

Another Waltz-Schuhl project was the reprinting in miniature of Grellings book
J'accuse! (I Accuse!). The booklet J'accuse was first produced in September
1915. The booklets were often disguised with fake covers in the German colors or depicting
an Iron cross and the title Die Wahrheit (The Truth). This book argued against the German
lie that they were fighting a defensive war and pointed out that the Germans had started
the war and were seeking to build a militarist empire. The French reproduced it as a
miniature 50-gram 432-page edition. In late 1915, the French dropped 20,000 copies of the
books behind the German lines. This result was achieved by using the very fine and
resistant paper used by Bibles for holding the Old and New Testaments in one volume.
Despite the small size of the Volume, the text remained very readable. So that the volumes
dropped behind the lines would not be exposed to deterioration, each copy was placed in a
strong paper envelope. And, for the little package to attract attention it was placed in
an envelope decorated with German colors.

Jean-Jacques Waltz

We have mentioned Jean-Jacques Waltz, also known as "Hansi"
several times in this article. He was born 23 February 1873 in Colmar (Alsace, then
Germany) and died 10 June 1951 in Colmar (Alsace - now France). Above is his very last
photograph taken just prior to his death.

At the end of the war, Schuhls was awarded the Legion dHonneur. The
citation, signed by Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France during the First World War, said
in part:

Citation accompanying the appointment to the rank of Chevalier of the
Legion of Honor

Interpreter

SCHUHL (Raymond Arthur), Temporary (Territorial) Interpreter Officer 3rd Class at
the Propaganda Action Center against the Enemy: Volunteer, although Retired, distinguished
himself in the course of many perilous missions in whose action he has demonstrated of
remarkable intelligence and absolute contempt for danger.

Paris, 11 January 1919  Entered in the Official Journal 12 January1919.

Forwarded to head of 1st Bureau

WORLD WAR TWO

The Symbol of Bern, Switzerland

America needed an expert propagandist in Switzerland. British researcher Lee Richards
searched the files in the U.S. National Archives and discovered a classified
Secret letter from the Acting Chief of Morale Operations, U.S. Army First
Lieutenant Patrick Dolan, dated 1 September 1943, that mentions what is specifically
needed and said in part:

The dissemination of rumors and subversive printed material, clandestine radio if
possible, the introduction of MO subagents into enemy territory or enemy occupied
territory, the recruiting of such agents among dissident enemy nationals or the nationals
of occupied countries, the creation and maintenance of channels for the introduction into
such territories of rumors, printed matter and personnel. MO representative in Bern should
possess full qualifications for operations His duties will include the recruiting and
direction of subagents who will operate in enemy or enemy-controlled countries. He should
command facilities for the printing and distribution of subversive leaflets, pamphlets and
possibly of underground newspapers A comprehensive agreement has been reached with
the British Political Warfare Executive and Special Operations Executive for the closest
collaboration, mutual assistance and the pooling of resources.

[Authors note]: Let me stop here just for a moment to point out that the British may
not have been quite as much in agreement as stated. British researcher Lee Richards found
a note in the British National Archives that states:

Salembier has been pirating  very heavily and unsuccessfully!

A British propaganda postcard from Operation Periwig
Courtesy Lee Richards
Note the horse symbol. Schuhl stole the symbol for several of his own leaflets

There are some attached OSS Berne leaflets, with a horse logo on the reverse that was
apparently stolen from a PWE project called Operation Periwig. PWE were obviously not too
impressed with Salembiers efforts.

The first of four leaflets Where Schuhl placed the horse image.

The British filed these leaflets in their Archives. The leaflets are entitled: The War;
The Honor; The Human Being; and The Personality. The small horse symbol is on the last
page of each document. The first one, entitled The War asks the following
questions: What is it; How is it created; and Who is to blame for the last war.

I assume that Schuhl figured that since the British already had a fictitious anti-Nazi
underground in Germany he might as well take advantage of it.

British Work Slowly Gummed Label

This was not the only time that the OSS did a bit of poaching British propaganda. The
British produced two versions of a Work Slowly gummed label coded H.230 that
could be placed on tables and walls wherever the German workers congregated. It featured
the red cogwheel emblem of the German Labor Front at the upper left and repeated the
phrase work slowly four times. Some of the text is:

Workers in all Europe must work slowly so that Hitler can win
himself to death more quickly. The easier we take it, the harder it is on Hitler.
Peace! Freedom! Socialism!

American Copy of the Work Slowly Gummed Label

The British propaganda message Leans just a tad to the left so Schuhl copied it, coded
his leaflet 119 and kept all the original text but cut out the last line at the bottom
that mentioned Socialism. He replaced it with:

Long live the Fourth Reich and German Freedom.

We now come across the first mention of Raymond Schuhl. In a classified secret letter
to Dolan from a Colonel Edward Buxton dated 3 September 1943 we find:

Burns in Bern recommended a man named Raymond Schuhl. Attached is a French
translation of a French book which tells about Schuhls activities in World War I.
Seemingly, he is ideal for our job.

In an earlier letter to General Donovan, the head of the OSS we find a similar comment.
No names are mentioned but we know who is being mentioned:

Kindly obtain a copy of the book Atrauers les lignes ennemies In
this book the person named on page 136, line 2 is available for work here. I have
requested him to make a preliminary survey of what could be done along these
lines There are opportunities opening up and Garry Mayer of the Officer of War
Information is giving his full cooperation.

This is really interesting. When I was researching Schuhl years ago I studied the Waltz
book mentioned above in the WWI section. Apparently the OSS did exactly the same thing in
WWII and offered Schuhl the job.

On 22 September 1943, Dolan sent another classified secret letter explaining the need
for his unit to have representation in Bern:

Bern and Switzerland are perhaps the prime outlets for Morale Operations work
against Germany. MO has no representation in Bern. This has left a great gap in our
overseas operations. I obtained the list of U.S. World War veterans now living in
Switzerland; it seems to me they would be valuable as OSS contacts.

How was the Morale Operations Branch going to pay for all this propaganda printing and
intelligence collecting? A 19 May 1943 classified secret letter implies it will not be
easy:

It appears that the project under discussion earlier this year, whereby MO would
have one million dollars, has not materialized. We have, in fact, no designated MO funds
in Switzerland at all.

A week later some progress had been made. A 25 May 1943 classified secret letter states
in part:

Yesterday I had a long talk about getting Swiss francs for Morale Operations
in Switzerland. The procedure is simple all we have to do is direct a letter to the
Finance Office which then transfers MO funds into Swiss francs payable in Bern. OSS has a
general fund in Switzerland from which this will be drawn, amounting to about $900,000.

Raymond Schuhl Takes Charge

We know a lot of general facts about Raymond Schuhl from old OSS documents that I read
and quoted in the past. For instance:

The printing operation in Switzerland is mentioned in the War Report of the OSS, The
Overseas Targets, Volume 2, Kermit Roosevelt, Walker and Company, NY, 1976:

Joint OSS/OWI operations were worked out in the field of propaganda warfare. The
OSS mission had early established contact with a Frenchman, known under his cover name of
'Salembier,' who had been one of the French Deuxieme Bureau's chief propaganda artists in
World War I. He knew his trade and was set up in business, operating from Geneva, by OSS
and OWI jointly. Millions of pamphlets, leaflets, cards, postage stamps and every form of
literary propaganda were printed and smuggled into Germany and Fascist Italy.

The man with the pseudonym Robert Salembier was actually Raymond A. Schuhl, code-named
Mutt. His code name had a code name! He had been a French Army propagandist in
WWI who had served in the 6th Section of the French Deuxieme Bureau until the fall of
France and volunteered to do the same for the Americans in WWII.

All OSS members received a code number and we dont know Schuhls, but there
is an un-named person (almost all others are named), numbered 677 that simply says
Employed by OSS in Switzerland. I suspect this is Schuhl because a Dulles
telegram dated 11 September 1943 says:

For the past six months the person numbered 677 has been working full-time for us,
and, since it is not wise to transmit reports by cable, we have been doing a great deal
more along the lines indicated than you know.

Enemy Military Identification Booklets forged by the OSS

Italian Social Republic Ministry of the Armed Forces Army Personal
Booklet

German Army Soldbuch or Soldiers Personal Identify
Book.

Kingdom of Italy Identification Card

French Disability Card

The last card would be valuable for an OSS agent sent behind the lines into occupied
France. If the Germans were to ask why he was walking the street he could say that he had
been invalided out of the military.

Italian Military Medical Document

It was not only the French agents that needed a medical excuse to be of military age
but not at the front. The OSS forged a medical document that an Italian agent could show
to the Germans or Italian authorities signed by a military doctor with a written report of
his injuries or disease and the time needed for him to heal. He could walk around safely
being a heroic soldier who had been injured in battle and was now on leave at home to
recover. The text has open areas for the description of the medical problem and the
signature of the medical officer.

Military Hospital - Milan

Hospital Medical Commission

Name...Can be discharged. During the hospital visit, he was treated for:

Milan, Italy

677 was doing work that Dulles did not want to put on paper. This is almost always the
case when you are talking about counterfeiting documents. Six months would take us back to
March and we think Salembier was hired in February, but that could just be rounding off
the numbers, or it could be that the forger was first hired for some specific contract
jobs, and hired full-time a month later.

There is also another clue. Gerry Mayer, Schuhls staunchest supporter and partner
had the OSS code number 678, just one number away. Not a smoking gun, but interesting.

He seems to have worked for the Americans as early as February 1943. His pay was
apparently in U.S. greenbacks and kept in the United States. On 5 February he asked for
some of his money and was told [in a censored letter]:

I have talked with our Financial Attaché on the question of the possible release
of some of your dollar funds in the United States. I suggest that when you are next in
Bern you call at the legation

Another letter on 6 June 1943 mentions that he also has funds in British bank. The
letter from D adds:

I have the greatest confidence in Salembier [Now using the code name] and would be
glad to do anything I can to facilitate his obtaining funds to keep him and his family
going here in Switzerland. He is useful to us in many ways.

A friend mentions that Schuhl had attained some wealth but lost it twice with the
German occupation of France:

Schuhl was associated with his uncle Alfred Picard in running a factory in
Ste-Marie-aux-Mines. From 1916 on he was a member of the propaganda service and thus most
of the time was away from home. His home town was ruled by the
German army, and the factory was sequestered. Alfred Picard escaped to Switzerland and the
money for Schuhl's secret actions came totally out of his own pocket. After the end of
WWI, Alfred Picard came back with Schuhl and restarted their industrial activities and
invested in several plants and companies in Alsace and in north of France. When WWII
started, both were wealthy persons.

Both men were Jewish, though non-observant. Picard had turned towards Protestantism,
while Schuhl turned towards Catholicism. After June 1940, anti-Jewish laws promulgated by
the Vichy Petain government defined both as Jews. When Schuhl escaped to Switzerland his
properties were sequestered once again and transferred to "Aryan" administrators
He had no funds in Switzerland. At the end of WWII, retrieving ones legal properties was a
lengthy procedure with no guarantee of success. His factory employed 4,000 workers. That
may be why in his letters to Dulles, Schuhl argues that he strongly needs money.

The Hotel Regina in Geneva
Schuhl has marked his hotel room window on the photograph

The former Hotel Regina and wartime home of OSS Morale Operations in
Geneva  2018
Schuhl worked from this location at 7 Quai du Mont Blanc facing Lake Geneva
It is the blue-grey building second from the right with flags on the roofPhoto by Lee Richards

Schuhls cover was an Alsatian
businessman. It appears that Gerry Mayer [of the United States Office of War
Information] was a middleman between Salembier and Dulles. I have a copy of a 16 September
1943 note from G.M.M. to Dulles giving Mutts phone number
and stating that he was staying at the Hotel Regina, phone number 2-61-74.

Mayer is a strange character. He was the head of OWI Berne, and as such had a
legitimate job producing American literature, brochures and magazines during the daylight
hours. However, each night he allowed those OSS people to sneak into his printing plants
and produce illegal (in Switzerland) anti-Nazi propaganda until dawn, when they quietly
slipped away and transported it clandestinely to Germany. How can this be? He was on two
payrolls. A 9 April 1942 letter to Mayer from OSS Chief William Donovan states in part:

This is to advise you that your headquarters have been changed from Washington D.C
to Berne, Switzerland. The reimbursement of your expenses in connection with the travel,
in accordance with existing orders and regulations, is hereby authorized.

This transfer is not for your convenience, but is for the best interests of the
Government.

It is almost as if his OWI job was a cover and he was meant to do espionage and
propaganda from the very start.

Schuhl and Mayer seem to have been the best of friends. In May of 1946, a letter from
Schuhl to Mayer in the Allen Dulles papers requests help with $99,000 in blocked funds in
three New York City banks and is signed by the old codename Mutt. In December
of 1946, both Dulles and Mayer wrote to Schuhl at the Hotel Regina in Geneva
congratulating him on the first Christmas after the Allied victory.

Raymond Arthur Schuhl was born in Paris but lived in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, a small
town in Alsace. Alsace had been integrated into the German Empire but Schuhl always had
strong pro-French feelings. He had a perfect knowledge of German language and was able to
speak with various regional accents, including Swiss.

When WWI was declared, he traveled to France and enlisted in the army. His intellect
was apparently noted and he received several promotions ending the war as a Lieutenant.
From an operational base in Switzerland he produced counterfeit German newspapers such as
the Frankfurter Zeitung and enormous quantities of leaflets and booklets. The methods of
dissemination were quite similar to those used by Office of Strategic Services in WWII

After 1933, Schuhl saw the danger represented by Hitler and the Nazi Party. He secretly
stayed near Vichy for a brief time where the new French government collaborated with
Germany (possibly gathering information), and then fled to Switzerland where he was able
to get in touch with the Office of Strategic Services and become a trusted agent.

A Fake Death Notice for Schuhl
Courtesy of Richard Thorner

At some point in 1942 Schuhl had apparently decided to join the Americans. Perhaps to
hide his whereabouts and to make himself invisible to the Germans and to protect his
family a death notice was printed stating that:

The friends of Commander Raymond Schuhl
Commandeur of the Legion of Honor
Croix de Guerre with Palms and Stars

Have the great sorrow to announce his death in Algiers during a bombing. It was far
from his native Alsace. Pray for him. Algiers, November 1942.

We also know that Schuhl was involved with postal propaganda. In late 1944, Eugene
Warner, the Chief of Mediterranean Morale Operations met with the French forger to discuss
sending propaganda mail into Germany through regular mail trains from Switzerland. Schuhl
told him that it could be done, but in only very limited numbers. As a result, MO Rome
pulled out of this operation and told Schuhl to prepare his own letters and envelopes in
Switzerland.

Back in Switzerland, the OSS might have been printing propaganda in Geneva and
Lausanne. A Swiss Ministere Public Federal document from their General Prosecutor dated 29
September 1944 states:

The imprimerie Centrale de Lausanne has printed propaganda material in
violation of Swiss neutrality and that propaganda is an outrage to a foreign Head of
State.

Consequently: The manager of the printing house will be punished in the event of a
subsequent crime. All the material seized is confiscated. 4 copies have been sent to the
Police of Sûreté de Lausanne.

We also find an 18 March 1944 letter among Schuhls papers that mention the German
attempts to counter his work. The Germans caused similar problems in WWI. The letter says
in part:

Measures taken in Germany against the Distribution of Clandestine
Literature

On 12 March 1944, an order by the German Minister of the Interior appeared in the
German press, especially in western Germany, making the distribution of clandestine
literature a punishable offense as dangerous for the state, and stating that
any leaflets that were found in Germany, if dropped by air or distributed in any other
way, must be delivered to the nearest police station. The statement any other
way officially recognizes the effectiveness of our methods of distribution.

The information department specifies that the distribution of leaflets and
clandestine literature considerably disturbs the German authorities. Leaflets and
clandestine journals were found in Western Germany as far as the Rhine, in Berlin, and in
several important river and seaports.

The surveillance of trains in the Rhine valley, and especially near Switzerland has
been considerably enforced. The main station at Basle is one of the places the German
police is particularly observant The anti-Nazi agents who risk their lives by
distributing the named literature now have to double their vigilance and prudence.

The Swiss police have received instructions to stop the delivery and transportation
of leaflets and anti-Hitler publications into Germany. The Gestapo has informed the Swiss
police authorities that the clandestine importation of these publications into Germany was
through Switzerland.

On 29 September 1944 we find the first document mentioning the prosecution of some of
Schuhls team by the Swiss. A "Ministry of the Public" finding says in
part:

Concerning the investigation against the Imprimerie Centrale SA in Lausanne, for
having fabricated propaganda material against our neutrality and for the criminal offense
of article 296 of the Swiss Penal Code (Offense of a foreign state) concerning articles
106 and 107 of the Federal Law of 15 June 1934 about the penal procedure it is decreed:

The investigation is suspended in view of the circumstances of the case.

The director of the accused house, Mr. Arthur Margot and his representative, Mr.
Andre Tschan, are informed, according to article 292 of the Swiss Penal Code, that they
will be punished by arrest or by a fine in case of a relapse.

The material that was seized in the source of the investigation procedure will,
considering its insulting nature being contrary to our neutrality, be confiscated
according to article 73 of the law

I suspect a lot of pressure was put on Switzerland by the Allies, so the court
basically put the culprits on probation and told them not to do it again or else.

Information Bulletin for France

The document that apparently caused the prosecution of the OSS printers was this one
with the title PETAIN. I could not find the Bulletin mentioned below, but this leaflet
does bear the title at the top of the first and second page in a small framed banner: 30
Avril 1943 - Bulletin d'Informations - N° 4. We have found no other leaflet bearing that
title. Looking at this leaflet the reader can see why I made a decision to only depict
pictorial literature.

What is odd is that although the Germans made the complaint; this leaflet really
attacks the French Vichy government. Perhaps that was all the Swiss police could find
during their raid. It quotes a number of French officials that say that there was
pro-German intrigue and treachery. An example:

Threats by Pétain and Baudoin,  the under-secretary of Foreign Affairs who,
after the capitulation, became a minister  to sabotage the proposition of Paul
Reynaud to transfer the French government to North Africa and, from there, continue the
fight against Germany. This decision was taken by Paul Reynaud when he won Bordeaux on 14
June. Within 24 hours Baudoin, Pierre Laval and their treacherous clique succeeded in
detaching the majority of collaborators from the president of the council, forcing M. Paul
Reynaud to resign.

Schuhl also filed a 2 June 1945 letter on the Swiss actions against his section. It is
rather technical and consists of names and charges so I will heavily edit it. It says in
part:

Swiss Army Military Court  Lausanne

By decision of 31 May 1945, the chief auditor of the army, referring to article 122
of the military penal code , ordered to close the proceedings of the military
investigative commission against the above mentioned individuals [Five Swiss citizens, one
identified as a printer] accused of propaganda actions in favor of a belligerent or
involvement in this infraction: the violation of the order of 14 April 1939 on the
maintaining of neutrality, or having participated in the preparation, the printing, or the
delivery of the Information Bulletin for France.

The decision is mainly caused by the consideration that the information bulletin is
identified as an information paper with documentary character rather than a subversive
propaganda journal. The conditions for foreign propaganda, penalized by the quoted order,
were not realized.

Meanwhile in Bern there must have been some real problem between American and French
forces because on 25 February 1945, Dulles recommends Schuhl for an intelligence job to
General Eugene L. Harrison of the U.S. Sixth Army Group and says that he can be trusted.
The letter says in part:

My French friend will identify himself under the name Salembier He
worked closely with us for over two years, and also had a mission from the French Ministry
of War Extremely astute and if anyone can be of use in ferreting out the mystery I
believe he is the man He is of course a good Frenchman, but I dont believe he
would tolerate any French intrigue against us

By some coincidence, the day before, 24 February, an American team called Alsos
entered Germany to search for data on atomic experiments and discoveries.

Another letter to Schuhl dated 7 July 1945 from a Molly Bessermann seems to be talking
about the same problem, although it gives no detail about what the problem was:

Mr. de Gaevernitz remembers with pleasure the interesting journey to Strasbourg he
made with you, and the precious assistance you gave American Army in a very delicate
affair.

Molly Bessermann was the private and confidential secretary to the Mr. Gaevernitz,
special Assistant to Allen W. Dulles. We assume she would be privy to most of the secret
workings of the OSS.

What problem appeared about February and ended about April 1945? I mentioned this
problem between the French and Americans and Bernard Hayem gave a possible explanation:

When the Allied armies advanced into Germany in April 1945, evidence was found of
the German nuclear program, consisting of components of a nuclear reactor and eight tons
of uranium oxide. At Celle, an experimental centrifuge for separating uranium isotopes was
found. Later, 1100 tons of uranium ore were found. The problem was that most of the areas
of interest lay in the path of the French First Army and were in the occupation zone
allocated to France.

American General Groves attempted to get the occupation boundaries changed, but due
to security restrictions of the Manhattan Project could not tell the State Department why.
The commander of the U.S. Sixth Army Group was asked to make the change but said that the
matter would have to be taken up with Eisenhower. A plan was drawn up called Operation
Harborage where a large American force would cut diagonally across in front of the
advancing French army and seize the area long enough to capture any German scientists,
remove all available records, and destroy any remaining facilities.

So, if Hayem is correct, the U.S. wanted to search that part of Germany to be about to
be occupied by France in order to confiscate German atomic projects and capture German
nuclear scientists. Who would be better to act as an intermediary with the French forces
than a highly regarded French officer like Raymond Schuhl?

That is all of the general information known about Schuhl (AKA Salembier,
AKA Mutt). Do we know more about this mysterious Frenchman who came to the aid
of the United States and ran propaganda campaigns again the Germans and Italians from
Switzerland? If fact we do. I have been privileged to read some of the documents that
Schuhl wrote as a record of his WWII exploits. The report below is undated so we are not
sure when it was written and it is not addressed to anyone so we dont know if a copy
was forwarded or this was for his own use. He uses the word service but does
not specify what he means so he could be talking about the OSS in Switzerland, the Moral
Operations Section or his own forgery and printing section. It is my belief that the
latter is the answer. Schuhl is talking about his own group and how they printed and moved
propaganda material. These are in his words, all in his native French, although I have
shortened and edited them for ease of reading. Let us start with Schuhls description
of the unit he led in Switzerland:

A Year of Clandestine Propaganda Service in Germany and in the
Occupied Countries

The clandestine propaganda service was established in December 1942. The service
currently consists of 8 teams, responsible for the dissemination of propaganda leaflets in
the nations annexed or occupied by the Axis. Its governing body consists of an
editor-in-chief and several assistant editors. Each team is an independent unit which
fulfills its mission without any knowledge of the existence of the other teams. All the
teams are under the control of Geneva, which is itself directly controlled by Berne, where
decisions are taken depending on editing, the types of images and other questions in
consultation with the Chief.

During the period under review, the service printed 1,269,500 leaflets and 19,000
brochures. The distribution of the printed material is effected by movement to and
departure from the depots of Berne, Zurich and Geneva.

Breakdown of the Berne Service

Notice that the printing shops are in Geneva and Lausanne. The depots where the
materials are stored are in Geneva, Bale and Zurich. You can follow the arrows and see
where the various printed material goes from each team.

Team Valmy: Printed material only for use in France, most often using the personnel of
the French Resistance.

Team Mail: Organized specially for the mailing in Germany of the counterfeit copies of
the newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung, and other periodicals, as well as some other
newspapers.

Floats used by Team Navig

Team Navig: This team is responsible for the introduction of leaflets in Germany, via
the Rhine river channel, by means of floating tubes 20 centimeters in length and 25 to 35
millimeters in diameter.

Team Rails: Until last September, the operation worked well; leaflets went to Germany
and Alsace by way of the railway-cars, returning to the country through the Bale station.
Leaflets got pass the Gestapo at Freiburg-Baden, but a complaint was addressed by the
German authorities to the federal authorities of Switzerland, who opened an investigation
into the matter. A member of the team was surprised during the operation and this led to
the arrest of the entire team. The activity of the team is consequently suspended.

Team Waterloo: A secretive, communist-oriented section directed against National
Socialism, with many secure means for introducing and distributing leaflets into Germany,
including relations with railway workers, tradesmen and postal workers.

Team Nibelungen: The "Free Germany" organization disseminates our leaflets
into Germany using processes specific to their organization.

Note: These last two teams operate on both the Bale and Schaffhausen borders, as well
as Liechtenstein to Austria.

Team Niagara: This team is specifically tasked to operate near the German-Swiss border
in the Lake Constance area.

Team Garibaldi: This group is currently in hiatus due to the invasion of Italy by the
Allies. It was constituted for the purpose of the introduction of anti-fascist leaflets in
Italy.

Team Parsival: Consists of a flying team composed of writers and occasional
collaborators, independently aggregating in the various sectors such as Mail, Navig, Rail,
Niagra, as needed.

During the twelve-month period, the service had to face many difficulties as a result
of the ongoing investigations and research carried out by the Swiss Federal Police on the
proceedings and following the requests submitted by the German authorities, to discourage
the printers and the authors of the leaflets. Several collaborators were arrested and
subjected to vigorous interrogations by the Federal Political Police during the
investigations. However, nothing was disclosed, either in regards to the organization
itself or in relation to the writers and printers.

Morale Operations Field Manual - Special Services

What was the purpose of all these leaflets and letters that appeared to come from
inside Germany? In 1943, the OSS published a classified secret Morale Operations Field
Manual - Special Services. It explained the philosophy, concepts, operations and
definitions needed by agents in the field.

Forgeries includes the writing of poison-pen letters, forging of misleading
intelligence documents, falsification of enemy documents and periodicals, and the printing
of false orders to the enemy, regulations, and proclamations. Leaflets, pamphlets, and
graphics are used for subversive deception within enemy and enemy-occupied countries and
not identifiable with any official or semi-official United Nations agency.

FALSE LEAFLETS, PAMPHLETS, & GRAPHICS: This type of implement refers to printed,
mimeographed or written literature and graphics distributed secretly in enemy territory
and under concealed sponsorship. This includes chain and, other anonymous letters,
chalking symbols and messages on walls. The false pamphlet sponsored by a belligerent
nation attempts to convey the impression that it is a bona fide message from the people's
own fellow country-men who are sharing the same risks as the rest of the population and
have similar aspirations, aims, and goals.

An appeal to nationalistic attitudes is more effective when made by the nationals of
the group than when made by another nation which has its own nationalistic axe to grind.
Likewise, incitement to action or revolt coming from a representative of an aggrieved
group is more effective than such incitement coming from an "outsider." Whenever
an attempt is made to assure potential sympathizers that they would not be alone in
resistance activities, such assurance comes better from a group which is presumably
carrying on the same activities under the same conditions and taking the same risks.

USES OF LEAFLETS: In general, the leaflet can be used for dissemination of
"forbidden" news, spreading of rumors, exposing nefarious activities of enemy
officials and collaborationists, giving reassurances to potential sympathizers,
instructing in sabotage, inciting to subversive activities, and preparing the populace for
cooperation with invading troops. The false leaflet can be capitalized upon by propaganda
agencies in popularizing a passive resistance campaign (such as the "V" campaign
or the "1918" campaign). It may be desirable to have the campaign
"planted" via false pamphlets. This "spontaneous" activity can then be
picked up by the authorized propaganda agencies. (2) The false pamphlet can be effectively
used to make the enemy uneasy about the loyalty of the people in the territory. The very
existence of clandestine pamphlets is "evidence" of underground activity.

The Propaganda Newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung - No. 467, Vol. 89, 1944
This counterfeit newspaper was printed by Schuhl in Switzerland in both WWI and WWII
Headline: Towards Decision? The Dramatic Climax of the War

A Special Financial Edition?

It appears that 21 issues of the fake newspaper were printed by Schuhl. At least, both
OSS sample books that I have seen studied ended with file number 21. The newspapers were
normally four pages, but in two cases I have seen 2-page issues bearing the same file
number but different text; such as Financial News, with stories about the state of
the German economy. I dont know how often the forgers printed a second 2-page
newspaper, but I suspect it was more of a special edition when there was too
much news to fit into four pages. Notice that the forger marked the Financial
at the top of the page with a red pencil to show that it was special.

In Nazi Germany there were numerous official newspapers for the military, the Storm
Troopers, the SS, and Party members. They were official and good Germans were
expected to read them and accept the statements as gospel. They came directly from the
Party and the Party was never wrong. Knowing this, Schuhl and his band of forgers produced
numerous facsimiles of the newspapers, all with hidden or overt anti-Nazi and defeatist
propaganda. A reader would gradually begin to feel the war was lost as he read through
these fake newspapers. I do not want to show them all, but I will mention a number of the
very popular German papers that were forged and disseminated.

Some of the newspapers forged by the OSS in Berne: The Black Corps; News for the
Troops; News for the Wehrmacht; The New Reich; Front and Home; the National Observer; the
New Vienna Daily; the Mulhauser Daily; and The Bodensee Review.

In the months to come, we plan to print more copies of the Frankfurter Zeitung,
numerous leaflets and posters and an important pamphlet containing the speeches of General
de Gaulle. We also plan to publish a counterfeit of Illustrious day and the
German humor magazine Simplicissimus. [A satirical German weekly magazine founded in
1896].

The OSS Propaganda Cigarette Package Nordland

The pack of Northland cigarettes contained ten cigarettes, each with a
propaganda message printed on them. A folded copy of the miniature propaganda newspaper Frankfurter
Zeitung was also included in the pack. Some of the eleven propaganda messages on the
cigarette papers I have seen are:

Without Hitler: Peace! With Hitler: Death, destruction, misery! There
is no middle way

To hell with Hitler and his bigwigs! This is the only way to save
Germany

General von Seydlitz: Hitler has to go

The warrior falls in enemy country. The bigwig sits in the dugout

Down with the Nazi bigwigs! Long live the Fourth Reich!

German workers, German farmers! The worst is before us! Peace, before
it is too late!

Besides the floating tubes, the teams also use packets of counterfeit cigarettes,
containing not only cigarettes with slogans, but also miniature leaflets.

The most intense efforts will be made in the future with a view to maintaining and
increasing the activity of the various teams, all this notwithstanding the ever more
serious forces which are opposed to this propaganda material by Germany and the rigorous
oversight exercised on both the Swiss and the German sides.

Judging by the reports received from the countries affected by this means of
propaganda, the results of this branch of activity during the past years should be
considered as extremely satisfying and encouraging. This concludes his initial report.

Gummed Propaganda Labels (Stickers)

Schuhl does not mention gummed propaganda labels but we know that the Office of
Strategic Services offices in Rome and Berne produced hundreds of different
pin-prick gummed labels as part of their mission to destroy the morale of the
German people and military and to make the Nazis believe there was a vigorous underground
movement in their midst. In the past I made a collage of such leaflets (I have about 100
of them). Most of these labels had short messages, sometimes with an illustration, and
they were all meant to be stuck on tables, walls, mirrors, etc.; wherever the Germans
congregated so they were daily reminded of the folly of the war and the evils of the Nazi
regime. In general, these small gummed labels are always between 2 and 4-inches in size.
Some of the short messages on the gummed labels are:

Die for Hitler?; Freedom! Peace!; Nazis out; One people: Austria; one Empire:
Austria, No Leader!; Peace on Earth not peace under the Earth; Later is too late; Away
with the (Swastika image), Peace still today; The last cartridge for the [swastika]-bigwigs;
Hitler´s death  Germany´s life; Volkssturm = SOS of the SS: [swastika] this
is the enemy!: [burial cross] you?; [cross with helmet] you?; You are
fighting for the party, not for Germany!; Down with the [swastika]; Shit; End the
war!; and Germany 1939: people without territory  Germany 1945
territory without people?

Fallen on the last day of WWII

I thought I would add this label because it is the largest I have ever seen. It is
about 7 x 8.5-inches in size. The Allies often produced white leaflets to
Germany showing a clock pointing to five minutes to twelve and asking if they wanted to
die in the last minutes of the war. This leaflet is similar. It depicts a grave marker of
a German soldier who was killed at the end of the war and asks the reader if he wants to
be that soldier. The text is:

Fallen on the last day of WWII.

Do YOU want to be the last one to die?

Dr. David Lerner who was a WWII Captain in the U.S. Psychological Warfare Division
wrote about Berne OSS in his book Sykewar. He said in part:

In addition to the standard leaflet formats, [Bernes] material appeared
as simulated German newspapers (Mainly the Frankfurter Zeitung), simulated German postage
stamps, seed packets, wall stickers, pamphlets and brochures

Schuhl had several German newspaper clippings in his files, all commenting on OSS
operations. It seems he kept clippings of articles from Swiss newspapers that were telling
of the increasing success of allied leaflet propaganda over Germany and the resulting
nervousness of the German authorities.

One small clipping tells about Himmlers order to hand over all leaflets that were
dropped by Allied planes immediately. It mentions the significant increase of illegal
enemy leaflets dropped over the Reich.

A second longer clipping is in regard to the intensified controls in Alsace and Baden
due to the illegal distribution of a newspaper that has been prohibited by the
National-socialists; certainly the OSS propaganda newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung. The
second half of the clipping indicates an increasing nervousness of the Nazi authorities as
a result of the defeats in the East and West and mentions arbitrary arrests by the SS that
is extending their operations to Alsace, and especially to Strasbourg. This clipping from
the Swiss Arbeiter Zeitung of Basel is a good example of a text in German that could have
never been published within Germany in 1944 because it speaks of an increasing weakness
and unease of German institutions and authorities.

A third clipping talks about leaflet propaganda in general and its significance in
WWII, discussing the pros and cons. It tells about the development of propaganda dropped
from the air starting with simple leaflets followed by coffee and chocolate drops, money
and rationing coupon drops, front newspapers such as the British Luftpost, and ends with
surrender passes. It is stated that by wars end, Allied leaflet propaganda had a
noteworthy influence and wide distribution among Germans both at the front and at home.
The article ends by saying:

Propaganda raids of the allied air force played an equal role with the bombing
raids against factories and railway stations.

The OSS Bible - The Nazis at War with Catholicism
5,000 Printed in German  2,000 printed in Italian

Following the initial comments are several pages that list the leaflets attached: 26 on
the first page, including a Bible, and Leaflets coded A through V; Page two lists an
additional 26 Leaflets coded W through Z and 1 through 22; Page three lists leaflets 23
through 32, and three issues of the newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung.

When we come to the end of the written portion of the Schuhl papers, we find a great
number of the actual leaflets that he printed and saved as souvenirs. We are told that
they were found in a hap-hazard condition relatively untouched for decades. We find them
alphabetically stamped from A to Z and then numbered starting with one. We think that
somewhere between 300 and 400 leaflets were printed in Switzerland so I am going to just
show a few that appeal to me. The leaflets are in German, French and a few are in Italian.
Take note that I am not going to depict any propaganda newspapers because they are big
bulky things, hard to scan and 90% text. In general, unless the subject is really
important I will not depict any all-text leaflets. Some are hundreds of words long,
difficult to translate and boring to read. The reader should understand that in general
the majority of propaganda leaflets are all-text with long military and political
diatribes. For the purpose of this article I will show those OSS leaflets that are
pictorial, colorful, interesting, and those I believe the reader would most enjoy seeing.
All the known OSS Bern leaflets are, however, recorded in the PsyWar.org
PSYOP Database.

The Leaflets

The Office of Strategic Service in Switzerland aimed at every country
within or occupied by the Nazi sphere, and most of the bosses of the Nazi Party. In this
section we will see some leaflets that used as a theme Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Goering,
Mussolini, bombing raids, German children, the Nazi Party, The German secret weapons, the
German monetary system, malingering, occupied France, and Charles de Gaulle. Of course
there are many more themes and this simply meant that nothing was sacred to the American
propaganda agents. All was truly fair in love and war.

I like this black OSS leaflet coded "B" because it appears to be a patriotic
German publication. We see the German Eagle on the cover and the text:

VICTORY of the Germans

However, inside the folded leaflet there are a number of charts that show the decline
of the value of the German mark. The ratio of the mark to Allied currencies is depicted
falling during the years 1940, 1941 and 1942. After each year there is a quote from a Nazi
leader:

COLLAPSE?

In the last days of August 1939 our leader said "We will
win."

In August 1940 Goring announced "We have won."

But today in 1943 Goebbels tells the people "We have to
win."

The mark wins to death

This economic propaganda has always been a favorite form of psychological operations.
During WWII the United States prepared four different 10 yen note facsimiles to be dropped
on Japan, each with a long text about the inflationary destruction of the war to its
currency. Decades later in Vietnam the United States would produce facsimiles of the North
Vietnamese 1, 2 and 5 dong notes with similar messages.

To the French from America

I chose to show this envelope filled with propaganda because it is the most patriotic
item I have ever seen. Both the French and American colors are red, white and blue so this
envelope is covered with color that would make any Frenchman proud, and the text on the
outside is also patriotic and blood stirring. The code is L and inside there
are eight pages of propaganda. The front of the envelope depicts the Statue of Liberty and
the text:

To the French from America

LIBERTY

We do not forget you  President Roosevelt

One of the enclosures inside the envelope
A gummed patriotic sticker to be stuck wherever the French people congregate

The back depicts the old American symbol of a white star on a blue background with a
red meatball center. Curiously, the Japanese flag has that same red meatball so after the
sneak attack on Pearl Harbor; the United States removed the red center. The text is:

THE FOUR FREEDOMS

Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Religion
Freedom from Want
Freedom from Fear

The insert is a speech by American ambassador M. Bullitt where he spoke of the
solidarity of the French on Joan of Arc Day in Philadelphia.

Stabilization of the Lira

We show the OSS attack on the German mark above. Just to prove that the OSS was an
equal opportunity attacker we depict leaflet M here. This is a
similar attack on the Italian lira. The leaflet shows the fasces on the front, the
symbol of Italian Fascism. The colors are those of the Italian flag and the text is:

STABILIZATION OF THE LIRA

One again the Berne propagandists provide charts of the precipitous fall of the Italian
lira from 1940 to 1943. 100 lira in 1940 was equal to 19 Swiss francs. In May of 1943 the
same 100 lira was equal to 2.52 Swiss francs. On the back of the leaflet there are
statements from Benito Mussolini dated from 1940 to 1943. They are:

We will win!Victory is in the fist!Victory or death!

Rendezvous with Friends

I liked this multi-page brochure because I wrote an article years ago stating that the
United States was famous for its leaflets showing the Air Force bomber. This booklet falls
right into that pattern. It targets the French and show American pilots and bombers
overhead on the front and back. Inside, different American bombers are illustrated and the
French are told what they can do. Among them are the A-20, B-26, B-25, B-17 and B-24. The
French were told that the bombers were hitting Germany on a regular basis and liberation
was assured. The leaflet is coded P. 25,000 copies of the brochure were
printed.

Anti-Fascist Postcards

The OSS prepared at two colorful propaganda postcards attacking the Axis featuring
vignettes by the famous Polish caricaturist Arthur Szyk. We know from OSS files that
55,000 copies of each propaganda postcard were printed in Switzerland.

Pact of Steel

The first card depicts Hermann Göring, Hideki Tojo, and the Grim Reaper leading a
chained and reluctant Benito Mussolini. Notice that the Japanese leader Tojo wears a Nazi
Party swastika armband. The title Stahlpakt (Pact of Steel) is on the back of the
propaganda postcard. This card has the stamped OSS file code R. The OSS
started using an alphabetic code and quickly used up the letters A to
Z They then changed to a numeric code and further leaflets in the series are
coded from 1 to 341 (the highest number I have seen so far).

Triumphal Procession

There is no text on the front, but the back is entitled Triumphzug Unter den Linden
Berlin 1943 (Triumphal Procession under the Linden Trees, Berlin 1943). The OWI/OSS
stamped file code for this propaganda postcard is Q. Both crads depict
Mussolini as a weak and ridiculous leader. The OWI selected these pictures to discredit
the German-Italian alliance and to divide both countries.

The Pact of Steel gummed label

Both of these images were also printed on gummed labels reduced in size to be placed on
walls, tables, and wherever Germans might congregate. I depict a gummed sticker from a
Berne sample book. The Propaganda cards measure about 6 x 4-inches, while the propaganda
gummed labels measure about 3.75 x 2.5-inches.

There is one peculiar fact about these two cards and gummed labels. Every specimen I
have seen depicts Pact of Steel as Q and Triumphal
Procession as R. However, some documents indicate that they are stamped
incorrectly and Pact of Steel should be R and Triumphal
Procession should be Q. I do not know how such a mistake could be made,
but I do note that in the official OSS file books the R appears before the
Q so perhaps that indicates that the OSS was aware that they had erred.

Astrology

There are a total of 10 cartoons all bearing the code S. The OSS knew that
everyone enjoys a good laugh, especially at the expense of the big shots, and here they
make fun of the Fuehrer and his belief in Astrology. He sees American bombers overhead and
wonders where his star-gazers went wrong. The Nazis believed in astrology and the Nazi
leaders had dozens of them on the payroll. After the attempt on Hitlers life, there
is a rumor that he blamed them for his generals actions and had about 300 of them
arrested and perhaps killed. Both sides used astrology as propaganda in the war. Both
sides printed leaflets, books, and had experts on Nostradamus explaining why the other
side was doomed. The headline of the leaflet is:

Scandalous! The stars up there are not mentioned in my book!

The book Hitler is reading is entitled:

ASTROLOGY

Your Future is Written in the Stars

German Humor

We should note that the ten cartoons were also published in a camouflaged booklet coded
T and entitled:

German Humor

Soul of the youth

Big Mouth...

Here we show the booklet T opened and two of the cartoon inside. They are
usually coded S when distributed as single leaflets, but inside the booklet
they bear no codes. The cartoon at left depicts a fat Nazi Party member covered with
medals strutting by two badly wounded veterans and the text:

Big...Mouth - Germany 1943

The cartoon at right depicts Hitler gloriously happy as his bombers blitz London, but
not so happy as the favor is returned by the British on the industrial Ruhr. The text is:

This is great!

But that is inhuman!

Who is next?

In the Pacific, General MacArthur was sending matchbooks to the Japanese reading:
I will return! The OSS sent these matchbooks to the French. One side has the
French colors of red, white and blue. The other seems to show a broken cigarette. Italian
dictator Benito Mussolini has fallen. Below we see Laval of Vichy France, Hitler and Tojo.
There is a question mark, clearly implying Who is next. This matchbook is
coded X. 20,000 copies of this matchbook were printed.

Each comrade of the people...

I have always liked propaganda leaflets in the form of postcards. This OSS product
is very handsome and we see Adolf Hitler standing in a graveyard near three buried SS
members. The bottom of the card says 1918, to remind Germany of its terrible
losses in WWI. The card is coded Y. 5,000 of these postcards were printed.
Hitler says:

Each comrade of the people has a right to his own piece of land

And the postcard reminds the reader:

Hitler in his Reichstag speech of March 8, 1938

Those German SS Troopers got their own soil, 6 feet deep in a graveyard. German
specialist Wolfgang Baldus pointed out that Hitler did not hold a speech on that day. Two
weeks earlier, on 20 February he had proclaimed the Pan-German Reich, and, a
few days after 8 March Germany annexed Austria. There was no Reichstag speech on March 8,
and the given date is therefore wrong or the comment is completely bogus. This image also
appears on a leaflet coded 43. That leaflet has the added text at the bottom:

Hitler and Himmler were defeated in the East!The war serves only them!For us, for the people the motto must be: dare!The immediate peace is the victory of the people.

Freedom Calls

The use of music in warfare goes back to Biblical times. Joshua won the battle of
Jericho using trumpets. The ancient Greeks went to war led by flutists playing songs of
patriotism and praising the Gods and their military heroes. Legend says that Athena
created the flute to imitate the wailing of the Gorgons when Medusa was killed. The
Spartans marched to war to the sound of flutes and used bugles to signal military
commands. On the attack, the Spartan Army moved forward while their king sang one of their
many marching-songs. He was complemented by pipers. According to Thucydides, the songs and
tunes kept the marching line in order, which helped the Spartans close in a solid,
unbroken line. There is reason to believe that when the Aztecs went to war they played a
"death Whistle" that made piercing noises resembling a human scream. Music has
been a form of psychological warfare as long as men have been fighting.

The Office of Strategic Services in Berne printed a 5-stanza anti-Nazi song called Die
Freiheit Ruft, (Freedom Calls) and disseminated it in Germany and wherever
German troops were stationed. The leaflet was coded 23. The song was to be
sung to the tune of the patriotic Horst Wessel Song, the anthem of the Nazi
Party. Some of the text is:

Freedom Calls

After the Horst Wessel song

Freedom is calling, the hour has comefor the revenge that we have awaited so long.Finally the bigwigs are in for itand Hitler prepares for his last walk.

A free Germany has to be created nowthe dark tyranny is broken.We dont want to see the Nazis againGoering, Goebbels and Ley will be hanged.

And Himmler, this most dreadful hangmanwill soon experience first hand

what he did in the land of the poets and philosophers we will do the murderer in now !

I note that although the song is coded 23 on a bright red paper above, it was also
found on a plain white paper on the back of OSS leaflet 22, entitled: How does it look
on the Eastern Front! Geographic truths. That leaflet bears a map of the Russian gains
against Germany from the start of the war until November 1943.

Total war?

I selected this small leaflet with just a few words of text because it is what we
call a slogan slip. Often a group of the enemy will march by one of these slips and be
able to read the propaganda without bending over and picking it up. This is very important
in some armies where reading enemy propaganda is considered a sign of disloyalty and will
bring swift punishment. The OSS printed many such small leaflets, this one is coded 24.
Any German walking along a road or country trail could see this on the ground and without
moving his head causally read the text:

Total war? Total misery!

Air Terror!

It was not only Hitler that was attacked and ridiculed by the OSS. In this leaflet
coded 52, Air Marshal Hermann Goering is quoted as bragging about forcing the enemy to use
German tactics, and then thanked for teaching them how to bomb major German cities.
Goering had told his Luftwaffe in September 1939 that No enemy bomber can reach the
Ruhr. If one reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Goering. You can call me Meyer. One
wonders if after the massive day and night bombings by the Americans and British many
Germans secretly called him by the Jewish name of Meyer? The text on the leaflet is:

Air Terror!

The Essen National Newspaper of October 21, 1941.

It is Goering's great pride that the tactics employed by the enemy in
air warfare were forced upon him by us, and that the German Luftwaffe created the new
method of military warfare, which the enemy imitates...

This leaflet depicts Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler in a ruined Berlin building.
Adolf seems to have a headache. The leaflet is one of many on a bright red paper
guaranteed to catch the eye of a passerby. The leaflet is coded 57. The text is:

I strongly ask you again, Adolf: We should declare Berlin an open
city.

In theory an open city was undefended and the Russians might have walked right in.
However, Hitler being a megalomaniac was determined to fight to the bitter end and bring
all Germany down around him. He succeeded!

Seed Packets

There is an old saying that if you give a man a fish; you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, and you feed Him for a Lifetime. These seed packets fall into that
general concept. The Americans were dropping seed packs to people in the occupied
nations of Europe and Asia. The OSS knew that the German people were starving because of
the war so they sent them seed packages that I am sure were opened with great joy. The
problem is that these were part of a propaganda campaign and in reality contained the
miniature American propaganda newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung in the German language.
The first packet (tomato) had issue number 454; the next packet (cabbage) had issue number
456, etc. There are a number of seed packets, all coded 92. Among them are: tomatoes,
cabbage or white cabbage; white icicle radish; carrots and summer and autumn
radish. This actually seems rather cruel and I cannot help but think it would turn
more Germans against the United States than for it.

Germanys last Secret Weapon

I chose OSS leaflet 104 because the image reminds me of the 1935 German propaganda
movie Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will). In that movie we see
Hitler flying to Nurnberg through the clouds and as he reaches the city the sun come out.
It is Fuehrer weather!

The Hitler Youth
Triumph of the Will

He takes part in a parade to screaming thousands and later visits his Hitler Youth
where close-ups of young uniformed drummers and buglers show them almost in rapture. It is
the German dream in action, The world belongs to us. In the leaflet, a young
man of perhaps four or five years old has been dressed like a senior Nazi storm Trooper by
his proud parents. Hitler is suitably impressed. Schuhl reminds the Germans of the failure
of all their secret weapons to change the direction of the war and cynically tells them
that their children will be Hitlers next weapon. This was a true prophecy. As the
war neared its end the Germans armed children and old men and sent them to protect Berlin
and face the Russians. This leaflet also appears in red coded 104A. The text is:

Our very last secret weapon: born in 1937

The Only Place

I like this gummed sticker a lot because I did an entire article once on the
vilification of enemy leaders. This label falls so perfectly into that group. Adolf sits
on the toilet but seems troubled. Perhaps the war is not going so well for him. Because it
is gummed, it could be stuck on tables and walls wherever the people congregated. The text
on this leaflet coded 124 is:

The only place where he did not make mischief !!

The war is not bad for Goebbels

Josef Goebbels was a true believer and the Nazi Minister of Propaganda who worshipped
Hitler. He was in charge of the German movie industry and was known to sleep with young
starlets who needed his approval to be in a movie. He owned a hideaway villa called
Waldhof Estate, set in woodlands 40 kilometers north of Berlin where he invited a string
of film starlets to the casting couch, including his mistress the Czech actress Lida
Baarová. Goebbels is said to have asked Hitlers permission to leave the Nazi Party
and divorce his wife Magda for his beautiful mistress, but the Fuehrer rejected the
request. Other glamorous visitors included the Third Reich actresses Zarah Leander and
Marika Rökk. The OSS prepared this leaflet coded 125 depicting the little club-footed
Propaganda Minister with a willing young female on his lap. It could be stuck on tables
and walls wherever the people congregated. The text is:

The war is not bad for GoebbelsHe is looking for a star for a filmWhile others bleed to deathHe busies himself with prostitutes

Charles de Gaulle Photograph

This OSS photograph on cardboard shows a wonderfully heroic pose of Free French leader
Charles de Gaulle. The Allies could barely put up with de Gaulle's arrogance and often had
to threaten or cajole him to act in certain ways or say certain things. Still, he was the
face of the French resistance and Roosevelt and Churchill understood that they had to put
up with de Gaulle to keep the loyalty of the occupied French.

This photograph was certainly meant for the French people to hide away from the Germans
and to look at when they needed a patriotic boost. In the Vietnam War two decades later
the Americans would give the Vietnamese people photographs of their President Nguyen Thieu
on a calendar hoping it would replace the secret picture of Ho Chi Minh that many of them
hid away. This leaflet is coded 145 and has the text:

This is not the moment for divisions or quarrels.

This is the moment for the complete union of all the French people of
goodwill.

Charles de Gaulle, speech of 12 November 1943.

National Enemy No. 1.

I have seen a dozen propaganda items vilifying Hitler and showing him with a
deaths head for a face. This gummed sticker coded 165 is one of the few OSS images
that use the skull image to attack SS leader Heinrich Himmler. Because it is
gummed it could be stuck wherever the people congregated. He sits with a satisfied smile
behind a symbol of the German State Police (Gestapo) with the text:

National Enemy No. 1

The gentle Henry

A cold killer of the people!

His Glorious Regime

I thought it might be interesting to point out that a good idea never becomes old.
Schuhl printed this leaflet coded 163 depicting Hitler sitting on a pile of skulls in the
1940s. The text is:

His glorious regime is enthroned on this

The OSS became the CIA and about 50 years later the United States fought Iraq in
Operation Desert Storm to free the occupied nation of Kuwait. The CIA prepared a limited
number of leaflets for clandestine use and this one depicts Saddam Hussein sitting on a
similar pile of skulls. What comes around goes around. The text implies that Saddam does
not care how many of his people are killed because he is well fed and well protected. The
text is:

I can live for 20 years.

The Hitler Birthday Sheet

I did not want to write about this item because I have written about it numerous times
in the past. In fact, readers with more interest might check my article on Operation Cornflakes. I only write about it because of its
amazing value.

On 5 April 1937, Germany issued a souvenir sheet in honor of the 48th birthday of Reich
Chancellor Adolf Hitler. In the center were four identical dark green 6-pfennig stamps
showing the face of the German leader. An inscription at the bottom of the sheet read:

He who wants to save his people must think heroically.

Schuhl produced a propaganda parody of this sheet meant to attack and ridicule Hitler
and the Nazi Party. It depicts a skull-like Hitler over a field of crosses. In 1946, H. R.
Harmer Inc. auctioned off the Franklin Delano Roosevelt postage stamp collection. This was
the first time anyone saw the OSS sheet. The catalog said:

Propaganda in Germany, faked Hitler sheet, dark red, showing skull and crossbones
design, printed in Switzerland and sent to widows and next of kin of German casualties.

In general, an American propaganda leaflet might be worth from $20 to $30 dollars. But
it was not leaflet collectors that wanted this stamp souvenir sheet. It was philatelists.
They went positively insane for this postage stamp rarity.

The OSS parodies have sold at auction for anywhere from $360 (the very first one in
1946), to $42,700 in 1995 at the height of its value. As additional sheets were discovered
the price dropped to $17,400 in 1967 and as little as $5,046 in 2009 when three sheets
came on the market at the same time.

Let me tell you a true story. I bid $34,000 for one sheet and did not get it. It sold
for $44,000 and then the buyer changed his mind. The auctioneer offered me the sheet but I
had regained sanity by then and refused and it eventually sold for $42,700. The last sheet
I saw sold was offered in a September 2014 auction, and went for just over $14,000. The
sheet is coded 192 and they are still rare though we now know of 28 sheets
extant.

The OSS Green Hitler Sheet

There is also a green version of the OSS Hitler birthday sheet. Unlike the red sheet it
is not perforated. Instead, the stamps are separated by rouletting. It is one of the great
mysteries of espionage philately.

No copy of a green sheet has ever been found bearing an OSS 192 code
number. Those that have been found in OSS files are suspicious. On several occasions,
where the red sheet should have been there was a note saying Supplies of this number
exhausted and a green sheet inserted. One specialist wonders if the green sheet was
not reprinted from the old plates simply to be placed in files because of the shortage of
red sheets.

At present, we have seen ten of the green sheets that appear to be genuine OSS
products. One was sold in 1991 for $2,100. Another green sheet is known as the
Staple Hole sheet because it had allegedly been stapled to an official
memorandum. Since the owner refused to show anyone the alleged memorandum, there was doubt
that it even existed. That sheet was offered for $6750 in 2004 and sold for $4000. In
2012, another sheet sold to a German collector for $22,605. In 2007, the price stabilized
and a sheet was sold for just over $8,000. At least four green sheets were found in
various OSS archives, none bearing a code.

There was one such green sheet in the Schuhl file. We cannot say that he made it, but
the fact that it was in his files next to a red OSS sheet would certainly imply that both
sheets were printed and available in Switzerland at the end of WWII when Schuhl put his
packet of documents together.

An OSS Counterfeit sheet of a German 12 Pfennig Hitler-head stamp

Several printings exist of the OSS forgeries of the German Hitler head stamps of
1941-1944, with minor differences. We think the stamps were printed at various times in
both Rome and Bern, on different paper, with different perforations, with slight changes
in color and the texture of the gum. The forgeries can be immediately recognized by their
perforations, anywhere from 11 up to 13. The genuine stamps are perforated 14. The exact
number of forged stamps printed by the OSS is unknown, but one official OSS Rome document
mentions the production of 726,550 facsimile German Postal Stamps, with 516,118
distributed. We see where most were sent: Bari; Brindisi; North Italy; Algiers; France and
some simply marked special. Notice that we do not see Switzerland.

We know the OSS was forging German stamps in Rome. We have never understood why they
would duplicate their effort in Switzerland. Why not just forward fakes from Rome? In late
1944, Schuhl was told to prepare his own envelopes containing propaganda to be taken into
Germany through the railway and then placed in the regular mail. At the time he was given
German stamps that we assume were Rome counterfeits. About the same time Donovan sent
Roosevelt some stamps and said:

The Hitler stamp was printed in Berne, Switzerland and is one of many
different types of propaganda introduced into Germany

We mention Kermit Roosevelts comments near the start of this article:

Salembier Millions of pamphlets, leaflets, cards, postage stamps and
every form of literary propaganda were printed and smuggled into Germany and Fascist
Italy.

There has been an argument that the Rome plates were sent to Switzerland but the Rome
forger Ed Lindner once told me:

We didnt share our plates with anyone and didnt use anyone elses
plates.

So, there will always be an argument about OSS Berne counterfeiting German postage
stamps. There are some counterfeit stamps that are quite different (called type one and
type two) but those who do not accept a Berne origin call them postwar forgeries or
printers waste. I dont know if Schuhl personally counterfeited the
above sheet, but I do know it was found in his personal papers so I think we must show it.

This leaflet has a really stunning image. A NAZI vulture is depicted on top of a
pristine German boy, about to tear out his vital organs. The German war machine was
running out of soldiers and arming children of the Hitler Youth and asking them to defend
the country. The text is:

The "Hitler Vulture" is feeding on German youth

Hitler promised his people that the war would be won by his wonderful Vengeance
weapons. Here the OSS has some fun with the German rocket program. They depict the
weapons as balloons that burst without causing any real damage. The text is:

Empty promises! V2, V3 in progress The V1 has already burst!

It was not only Hitler and Himmler that were attacked by the Berne printers. Here they
take on Air Marshal Hermann Goering. His body bedecked in medals, Goering stands over
a poor worker. The text is:

Work, work, all day and night  to grant Goering his millions!

A Page of Gummed Labels

Because there are over 300 items and many are small labels, the OSS people when filing
would often just stick a group on a page. Here you see five labels on page numbered
284-288. This was not a good idea because collectors prefer the labels to have full gum on
the back, but of course the agents were not thinking in term of future sales. Another
problem is that over 7 decades the pages and the cellophane covers will shrink and warp.
You can see the paper has shrunk and wrinkled on this page. Still, historically it is a
wonder to see a page like this with such rare items.

The five labels feature Hitler leading the German people falling off a cliff, a
skeleton with scythe, Himmler manipulating Hitler, a broken sword, and Hitler in a rather
feminine pose. The tests are:

The most stupid guy realizes that this old banger is going to go to hell!!!

Death has no troubles any longer The Gestapo has done all the work for him

The gentle Heini. The puppet master has him under control.

There are no miracles! The German sword is broken! Only reason can help

Now he risks his head ! How nice it was in those days when auntie Röhm
was still alive!

Note: Heinrich Himmler was called "Heini Himmler" by most of the SS.
(Heini means a little boy who's afraid of everything. This is due to the fact
that Himmler never fought in any war). He is shown as a gentle puppeteer who controls
Hitler.

Ernst Julius Günther Röhm was a German military officer, a homosexual, and an early
member of the Nazi Party. He was a co-founder of the Sturmabteilung (SA), and later
was its commander. By 1934, the German Army feared the SA's influence and Hitler had come
to see Röhm as a potential rival, so he was executed during the Night of the Long Knives.
The homosexuality is likely why Hitler is shown in feminine attire.

There was a rumor, no doubt spread by the NAZIs that they would fight on from an
Alpine Fortress. The OSS ridicules the rumor and points out that the only ones
in the mountains will be the party bosses. The text is:

Escape to the mountains? The German redoubt is only for the bosses!

A brief word about the rarity of these OSS Berne leaflets. They are very rare. I had a
friend tell me that the operation must have been a failure because he hardly ever sees OSS
leaflets. Schuhl says the total they did from early 1943 to early 1944 was 1,269,500
leaflets. The U.S. Army Air Force dropped hundreds of different leaflets over Germany and
to give some examples: they dropped 8,624,000 copies of USG 17 (Every five minutes a new
airplane is built in America!) and 16,800,000 copies of USG 34 (Do you want total war?).

An American airplane could drop millions of leaflets on a single trip while the OSS was
smuggling in dozens or hundreds of leaflets in sardine cans and metal cylinders. A German
finding the leaflets knew that if he was caught with them he was going to a concentration
camp. He certainly threw them away, buried them or burned them. As a result, most of the
leaflets we see today are from OSS or German police files. They are extremely rare.

An OSS Fake Fashion Magazine  The Fashion of Today

Schuhl forged more than just leaflets and newspapers. Among Schuhls personal
papers is a page from a fashion magazine in the German language. It is apparently a forged
Swiss magazine because on another page we see Swiss Fashion House 
Zurich and the title: The Fashion of Today.

The pages are untitled and undated, but on the page in question we see the following
stories: White vests for young girls; A healthy sport;
Tranquility in the household; and Once upon a time. In the lower
right corner there is a short book review. Every story on the page contains propaganda.
The book review refers to the novel Sommermond in Flandern (Summer Moon in
Flanders) by Bruno Schwietzke, issued by the Bertelsmann publishing house first in
1939, and again in 1941 and 1942. The OSS misspelled Schwitzke and
Bartelsmann. The book is one of many attempts of the NAZIs to emphasize the
ties and affinity of the Germans to Flanders. The text is:

Our newspapers tell us about all the heroic deeds and actions committed by our men
and sons on the Western Front. But they do not tell us how many bled to death in the West
and they don´t tell us anything about the hundreds of thousands of victims who perished
in the campaign against Poland. Don´t give credit to them. Germany will perish because
not only food is lacking but also all key products required for the armament industry.

The White vest for young girls story attacks the Arbeitsjahr (one
year of work) that was obligatory for every young girl.

The article A healthy sport is about bicycle riding. After explaining the
positive effects on health the restrictions are listed that makes bicycle riding
difficult: obligatory rationing coupons for new bicycle tires, etc. The text then adds:

Did you, German women, ever think about how many car tires your bigwigs and their
women and mistresses have at their disposal? Why not economize on the tires of the many
luxury cars Do you realize how many cars the wives of Goring, Goebbels and Himmler
call their own? Defend yourself, German women, otherwise you will lose everything. Defend
yourself before they break your back.

The article Tranquility in the household is about Germany's defeat. It says in
part:

The neutrals have to recognize that once again German competence has created great
things, but in vain. You can't handle the impossible The situation created by the
British-French alliance is untenable. We are irretrievably lost. Not a word about the 80%
of our submarines that lay on the bottom of the sea with all their crews All our
weapons failed. Our enemies are superior to us in all respects. Why continue fighting?
Let's make peace and get rid of the individuals who led the German people into ruin.

The article Once upon a time is in the form of a fairy tale. A child is
asking the grandmother if it is true that at one time everyone could buy all the goods
they wanted at the market without being punished, and why this is no longer possible.

Why were times better then?

The grandmother says:

Be silent, my dear, don´t ask. If you continue asking, foreign men will come and
catch me and you, dear, will no longer have a grandmother!

Fashion and Taste

The British also produced propaganda fashion magazines. Lee Richards told me that the
American magazine was similar to one produced by British Section D in 1939/40 titled Mode
und Geschmack, (Fashion and Taste). The title of the story above is
A three-minute fashion show!

The U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom

After the war Schuhl received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Harry S.
Truman and was very proud of this award, among many others. France awarded Schuhl the Commander
de la Legion dHonneur and the Croix de Guerre avec Palmes for both WWI
and WWII. He died in Paris on 11 July 1958 of a heart attack.

Dulles did fight for Schuhl. I have seen a letter dated 20 December 1946, where Allen
Dulles recommended Schuhl for a military medal. Dulles was a great admirer and wanted to
do something for his wartime propagandist. His request said in part:

Decoration for Raymond A. Schuhl, generally known as Salembier, an Alsatian
who did some outstanding work for Gerry Mayer and me during the war

The request was rejected. The U.S. Army was not about to give a French national a medal
for producing black propaganda, forgeries and counterfeits in Switzerland in violation of
Swiss neutrality. Schuhl did, however, receive a letter from President Roosevelt dated 30
October 1944 thanking him for efforts on behalf of the Allied nations. Roosevelt said in
part:

My sincerest compliments for your valuable labors and efforts in the cause of the
Allied Nations. We cannot know all the risks and dangers to which such friends are exposed
for the Allied cause. It is only when reports such as those you have kindly sent us arrive
that it is possible for us to understand the actions of our friends who are engaged in the
struggle to free the world of Nazi oppression. You have my personal thanks. I join with
the people of the United States that continues this fight with a single thought: Victory!

In Later years Schuhl kept his medals in a place of honor. One visitor to his home told
me:

I remember that, being a child my sisters and I, when visiting Schuhls
apartment in Paris, liked to look at the glass case where his medals and awards of various
kinds and origins were displayed.

The Leaflet Collections

As I said before, although these leaflets were highly classified at the time, there are
many collections put together by the forgers and propagandists that still exist today. The
people that prepared these colorful leaflets wanted to collect and keep them as souvenirs.
One who secretly kept samples was the British forger Ellic Hull, who was ordered to turn
in all his leaflets to the government under the Official Secrets Act at the
end of the war. He claimed to have done so and once visited me in New York to ask to take
pictures of his products for his book The Black Game. That was simply a ploy. He
had kept personal albums which was later used to partially illustrate Lee Richards
book The Black Art and then donated his albums to the Imperial War Museum upon his
death.

There is also the possibility that there are Berne sample booklets prepared for
government and military officials that visited the OSS Morale Operations headquarters. In
OSS Rome, books were prepared and were given to visiting officials that controlled their
purse strings. Many were found in attics and place where the Rome agents lived during the
war. OSS Rome produced books for Operation Cornflakes and Operation Sauerkraut. General
MacArthurs Psychological Warfare Branch in the Philippines seems to have made sample
books for almost all of its members.

The Berne collections can contain anywhere from 300 to 400 leaflets. They are sometimes
found in a binder with the leaflets inside cellophane sheets. One collection was found in
a binder with Berne - 35 on the cover. This could mean that this was the 35th
book prepared, but we have no proof of that. I illustrate some of the pages of one of the
Berne collections here.

Philatelic Propaganda

These pages depict a genuine German Hitler birthday sheet at the upper
right; at the left an OSS fake sheet in red and at lower right an OSS fake sheet in green.

Cigarettes and Seed Packets

These pages show the anti-Nazi OSS newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung and
cigarettes with propaganda messages on the left; and fake packets of seeds on the right
that also contain copies of the Frankfurter Zeitung.

So what do we know about the Berne books? I have accumulated some data and here is what
we know so far:

Berne OSS Morale Operation Leaflet Collections

A French collector bought an OSS Bern collection put together by the OSS forger Arthur
Schuhl. He bought it in France in 1983, in 50 kilograms of old papers bought from a
scrap-rag merchant. The leaflets were in disorder inside a cardboard box and nothing was
written on the box.

The Hoover Institute at Stanford University contains a collection of about 400
leaflets. It was originally in an album. The collection contains both OWI and OSS
propaganda as might be expected from Berne, since both agencies worked closely together
and used the same printing shops.

Gerald Mayer donated a collection to the University of California, at Berkeley. The
collection was studied by author William Warren Wertz Jr., who in 1949 published a
256-page Masters dissertation about the theory of propaganda analysis, entitled: Clandestine
propaganda from Berne (1942-1945): United States leaflets subverting Hitler. The Mayer
collection is no longer at Berkeley and apparently its fate is unknown. That probably
means that at some point it was sold by the university.

George Meyer, former director of services for the French War Ministry of Press and
Information, had a personal collection of propaganda. Meyer allegedly made a gift of the
OSS Berne propaganda material to a French military museum Service Historique de
lArmee at Vincennes. It is believed that they later sold it to the German author
who later sold many pieces to a British collector.

There are two collections in files in the U.S. National Archives and Records
Administration in Washington DC. The two OSS collections were spread over three boxes.

The Berne leaflets in the Allen W. Dulles Digital Files Series were scanned and
redacted by the Central Intelligence Agency after Dulless death and provided to
Princeton University in PDF format after their declassification in 2007. The original
documents remain in the possession of the CIA. Dulles headed OSS Berne. This collection is
stored at the Mudd Manuscript Library.

The Thorner Book

In 2017, Richard Thorner, a collector of old documents acquired an OSS Berne book
containing over 300 printed items to include leaflets, gummed labels and newspapers, all
in cellophane pages.

Out of stock notification

7 of the OSS leaflets were out of stock at the time the book was prepared indicated by
typed inserts that said: The following numbers are exhausted.

17 other leaflets were missing and may have been removed by the original owner of the
book. Of the 21 known issues Frankfurter Zeitung,
10 were missing from the book. The binder has 35 BERNE SWITZERLAND 1942-45
written on the spine of the cover.

I was informed by Lee Richards who often does research at the National Archives that
the two collections they have are in the same sort of old cellophane pages:

See how the cellophane sleeves have shrunk and wrinkled the backing
paper.

Thank You

I got a lot of help with this article. Some of the material was from the collection of
an old friend, Bernard Hayem and my own files. British researcher Lee Richards and German
researcher Wolfgang Baldus also helped out with images and translations. Rare book dealer
Richard Thorner allowed the use of some of his documents and some of my old Psywar Society
friends, Belgian Freddy Dehon and Frenchman Michel Girard offered their help. The
willingness of all these folks made this story rather easy to write.

This concludes our brief report on Raymond Schuhl who led the U.S. Office of Strategic
Services printers in Switzerland. Readers who want to talk more about this article are
encouraged to write to the author at Sgmbert@hotmail.com.